Xing Zi Ming Chu

Xing Zi Ming Chu (Chinese: 性自命出; pinyin: xìng zì mìng chū), translated as Human Nature Is Brought Forth by Decree^[1] or The Inborn-Nature Comes from the Mandate,^[2] is a Warring States period (ca. 5th century – 221 BCE) text from the Kingdom of Chu, excavated in 1993 from the Guodian tomb, near Jingmen in Hubei, China.^[3] It is one of the earliest Chinese texts to discuss human nature, although it was lost until its re-discovery.

Background

Xing Zi Ming Chu is part of the Guodian Chu Slips, a corpus of manuscripts written on bamboo slips from the Guodian tomb excavated in 1993,^[4] which can be dated to approximately 300 BCE, when the tomb was sealed.^[5] This manuscript is one of the longer ones from Guodian, containing about 1,550 characters, written on sixty-seven slips which are 32.5 centimetres (12.8 in) long. Nine of the slips have been damaged, leading to a loss of 29 characters.^[6]

The author of Xing Zi Ming Chu is contested. According to some scholars it was written by Zi Si (483–402 BCE), a grandson of Confucius, based on the similarities in thought between this text and others which he or his disciples are traditionally held to have written, such as Zi Yi (Chinese: 緇衣; pinyin: zī yī).^[7] However, while acknowledging the likelihood that Xing Zi Ming Chu and the other Guodian texts circulated during Zi Si's lifetime, other scholars do not find this evidence persuasive, leaving the question of authorship open.^[8][9]

This bamboo manuscript has a counterpart in the Shanghai Museum corpus, named by the editors Xing Qing Lun, Discussions on Natural Dispositions and Emotions^[10] (Chinese: 性情論; pinyin: xìng qíng lùn, also translated as Discourse on Human Nature and Unshaped Feelings^[11]). Their relationship is a matter of debate. The first halves of each are very similar, and they also feature similar punctuation. Despite that, their second halves diverge, and certain characters do not exactly match. These differences have been interpreted to mean that Xing Zi Ming Chu is either a version of Xing Qing Lun,^[2] or that they share a common textual lineage. While some scholars claim that they are unlikely to have been copied from one another,^[12] some features suggest that visual copying was also part of the production process.^[13]

Summary

Xing Zi Ming Chu discusses human nature in the context of the Way and an ethics which would be later viewed as "Confucian," relating it to rightness, benevolence, the mind, and unshaped feelings.^{[nb 1]} It first discusses the origin of human nature in Heaven and humanity. It continues by discussing what causes human nature to manifest, and how it does so. Next, it discusses the education of human nature through "odes," "documents," "rites," and "music," which themselves are said to be refined forms of natural human behaviour. Finally, the text becomes instructive, giving advice for particular situations.^[16]

Analysis

Xing Zi Ming Chu strongly states that human nature derives from Heaven. This means that human nature is not a blank slate, and merely one of the many things that are born from Heaven's "decree."^[17] In its analysis, unshaped feelings derive from human nature; in turn the Way derives from unshaped feelings. The Way in Xing Zi Ming Chu transcends the phenomenological world, but is yet an innate part of human nature. Therefore humanity is predisposed to cultivation of human nature so as to transform its initial state.^[18] To begin with, human nature is characterized as responding to phenomena in the world emotionally. These responses become "proper" through ritual, i.e. the "odes," "documents," "rites," and "music," which had been categorized and organized by "sages."^[19] However, there is no evidence in Xing Zi Ming Chu that these references to tradition refer to specific texts, which is often assumed in the context of early Chinese thought. Rather, the text refers to them as traditions to be performed.^{[20][nb 2]} Thus humanity is drawn into a web of relations between Heaven, human nature, and moral cultivation, which reflects contemporary philosophical concerns with "working within and transforming a discontinuous world."^[22]

Scholars note that the concept of human nature set out in Xing Zi Ming Chu bears similarities with other Warring States texts. As mentioned, it draws on a similar philosophical vocabulary to texts later classed as "Confucian," some of which also discuss human nature, such as Mencius and Xunzi). In particular, its discussion of the relationship between unshaped feelings, ritual, and music has been compared to a similar discussion in a chapter of the Book of Rites.^[23] However, Xing Zi Ming Chu and similar texts from the Guodian tomb had disappeared from transmission at some point between the late Warring States period and the Western Han period for unclear reasons.^[24] As such, the relationship of Xing Zi Ming Chu to other Warring States texts remains speculative.^[25]

Notes

Footnotes

1. The term "Confucianism" is problematic because it generalizes intellectual developments centred on core canonical texts throughout Chinese history. The Warring States period preceded the formation of a canon during the Han dynasty and its attribution to Confucius. Moreover, Warring States texts are composite in nature, with thinkers from different "schools" using the same ethical terms. It is therefore inaccurate to consider Warring States texts "Confucian."^[14][15]
2. In Xing Zi Ming Chu these four kinds of tradition are written as "詩 (shī)、書 (shū)、禮 (lǐ)、樂 (yuè)," which literally translates as "odes," "documents," "rites," and "music." Due to the ambiguity of classical Chinese and the conventions of classical Chinese scholarship, references to these traditions are often understood as referring to one of the Chinese classics: "odes" as The Classic of Odes, "documents" as The Book of Documents, "rites" as The Book of Rites and "music" the lost Classic of Music (whose existence as a written text is controversial). However, recent scholarship disputes the existence of written canons during the Warring States period, pointing to evidence in texts and manuscripts of oral transmission. This means one should not automatically infer from references in texts such as Xing Zi Ming Chu to these traditions that a text is referring specifically to one of the Chinese classics.^[21]

References

1. Meyer 2012, p. 131.
2. Shaughnessy 2006, p. 12.
3. 荆门市博物馆 (2002). 郭店楚墓竹简: 性自命出:. 简帛书法选 (in Chinese). 文物出版社. Retrieved 2024-05-06.
4. Liu 2008, p. 61.
5. Meyer 2012, p. 5.
6. Meyer 2012, pp. 131, 135.
7. Ding 2000, pp. 28, 33, 35.
8. Meyer 2012, pp. 131–133.
9. Shaughnessy 2006, pp. 11–13.
10. Shanghai bowuguan cai zhan guo Chu jian shu 上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe. 2001. pp. Volume one.
11. Meyer 2012, p. 135.
12. Meyer 2012, p. 169.
13. 風儀誠, Venture, Olivier (2007). "《戰國兩漢 "于"、"於"字用法與古書的傳寫習慣》". Jianbo 《簡帛》. 2: 81–95.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
14. Nylan 2001, pp. 3, 5.
15. Rosemont 2015.
16. Meyer 2012, pp. 154–169.
17. Li & Huang 2010, pp. 38–39.
18. Meyer 2012, p. 146.
19. Puett 2010, pp. 57–59.
20. Meyer 2012, p. 170.
21. Kern 2005, pp. 180–181.
22. Puett 2010, p. 63.
23. Ding 2000, p. 30.
24. Meyer 2012, pp. 251–254.
25. 郭店儒簡論略. Chu tu si xiang wen wu yu wen xian yan jiu cong shu (in Chinese). 台灣古籍出版有限公司. 2003. p. 65. ISBN 978-986-7743-18-3. Retrieved 2024-05-06.

References

• Ding, Sixin (2000). "论《性自命出》与子思学派的关系 Lun 《Xing Zi Ming Chu》 yu Zi Si xuepai de guanxi" [On the Relationship between Xing Zi Ming Chu and the School of Zi Si]. 中国哲学史 Zhongguo Zhexue Shi (in Chinese) (4): 28–35. Retrieved 2017-11-02.
• Li, Youguang; Huang, Deyuan (2010). "The True or the Artificial: Theories on Human Nature before Mencius and Xunzi". Frontiers of Philosophy in China. 5 (1): 31–50. doi:10.1007/s11466-010-0002-9. JSTOR 27766004.
• Kern, Martin (2005). "Chapter 5: The Odes in Excavted Manuscripts". In Kern, Martin (ed.). Text and Ritual in Early China. University of Washington Press. pp. 149–193. ISBN 0-295-98562-3.
• Liu, Johanna (2008). "Music [yue] in Classical Confucianism: On the Recently Discovered Xing Zi Ming Chu". In Shen, Qingsong; Shun, Kwong-loi (eds.). Confucian Ethics in Retrospect and Prospect. CRVP. p. 61. ISBN 978-1-56518-245-5.
• Meyer, Dirk (2012). Philosophy on Bamboo: Text and the Production of Meaning in Early China. Leiden, The Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill NV. ISBN 978-90-04-20762-2.
• Nylan, Michael (2001). The Five "Confucian" Classics. New Haven, CT, USA: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-08185-5.
• Puett, Michael (2010). "Theodicies of Discontinuity: Domesticating Energies and Dispositions in Early China" (PDF). Journal of Chinese Philosophy. 37 (Supplement 1): 51–66. Retrieved 2017-11-02.
• Rosemont, Henry (2015-10-27). "Translating and Interpreting Chinese Philosophy". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University. Retrieved 2017-11-02. The composite nature of most texts also means there can be no tidy classification system for them either, nor even for their parts at times: labelling this chapter of a text Daoist, or Mohist, and that one more or less Confucian ignores the fact that there were a large number of ideas current in the classical period, with different thinkers adopting and adapting them in different ways.
• Shaughnessy, Edward (2006). Rewriting Early Chinese Texts. Albany, NY, USA: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-6643-4.

Further reading

• Xing zi ming chu at the Database of Religious History.